Practice Guidelines for Central Venous Access

Abstract

What other guideline statements are available on this topic? Several major organizations have produced practice guidelines on central venous access128 – 132 Why was this Guideline developed? The ASA has created this new Practice Guideline to provide updated recommendations on some issues and new recommendations on issues that have not been previously addressed by other guidelines. This was based on a rigorous evaluation of recent scientific literature as well as findings from surveys of expert consultants and randomly selected ASA members How does this statement differ from existing guidelines? The ASA Guidelines differ in areas such as insertion site selection (e.g. , upper body site) guidance for catheter placement (e.g. , use of real-time ultrasound) and verification of venous location of the catheter Why does this statement differ from existing guidelines? The ASA Guidelines differ from existing guidelines because it addresses the use of bundled techniques, use of an assistant during catheter placement, and management of arterial injury